Many seminaries reluctant to shut down despite Sindh govt’s order

KARACHI: Defying the Sindh government’s orders of ending educational activities at the religious seminaries, madrassas’ administrators on Friday said they are only supposed to follow the instructions of their representative boards regarding continuing with academic activities at the madrassas or shutting them down.

After the recent spike in coronavirus cases across the country, the federal and Sindh governments had announced the closure of schools and all other educational institutions from November 26 onwards. However, madrassas across the country, including Sindh, did not comply with the order and continued with their educational activities.

On Wednesday, the Sindh home department directed relevant departments in a letter to close educational activities in madrassas throughout the province with immediate effect.

The letter said that the provincial Auqaf and religious affairs department, and commissioners and deputy commissioners in Sindh were empowered under the Section 3 of the Sindh Epidemic Disease Act 2014 to put this order into effect.

Following the letter, the five key madrassa bodies of the country representing various schools of thought, and their joint body, the Ittihad-e-Tanzeem Madaris Pakistan (ITMP), did not show any reaction. The five madrassa boards of the country are the Wafaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan, Tanzeem al-Madaris, Wafaq al-Madaris al-Salafi, Wifaq Ul Madaris Al-Shia, and Rabta al-Madaris al-Islamia.

On Thursday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s head, in his media talk at the Jamia Arabia Ahsanul-Uloom seminary in Karachi also refused to comment on the Sindh government’s orders for closing the madrasas and said the Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia was a representative madrasa body that would give its version on the government order.

However, in spite of no official statement from any of the madrasa bodies, interviews with officials of madrasa boards and administrators suggest that they have no intentions to close educational activities.

“We follow the directions of leaders of the ITMP or our madrasa board, not the government or law enforcement officers for whether to open or close the madrasas,” said an administrator of a Deobandi madrasa in Karachi.

He added that the education system, syllabus and administrative structure at religious seminaries were different from schools and colleges. “In schools, there are winter vacations but in madrasas, academic activities continue during the winter,” he explained.

On November 25, the ITMP sent a letter to Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood to express their concerns over the government’s orders to close the educational institutions, stating that the academic year of the madrasas ended in the Islamic month of Shaban. “Because of the previous lockdown, madrasas could offer merely three-month education and hardly three months were left to complete the syllabus,” read the letter. “But if madrasas shut down their educational activities till January (extension’s possibility could not be ignored), it will spoil entire academic years of thousands of students.”

The letter was signed by Maulana Abdul Razzaq Sikandar, Mufti Munib Ur Rehman, Allama Professor Sajid Mir and other religious leaders who maintained that the madrasas were strictly following the SOPs and treating students properly if they became sick.

“Mosques and madrasas do not spread viruses. Instead, prayers are held daily here to get rid of pandemics, diseases, and natural disasters,” read the letter. Sindh govt to consult Ulema

Meanwhile, Sindh Information and Religious Affairs Minister has acknowledged that the government’s latest order to suspend educational activities in religious seminaries in the province cannot be implemented without consulting the concerned Ulema, adds our correspondent.

“The order to this effect was issued yesterday as Saeed Ghani (Sindh Education and Labour Minister) will now hold a consultation on this issue with Ulema,” Shah said as he spoke to media persons on Friday at his camp office in Lyari. “As of this moment, I know that this consultation has yet to take place,” he said.